Peter Burback

K ITCHENWARE
N
EWS
Housewares Review
S E R V I N G K I T C H E N WA R E , H O U S E WA R E S A N D TA B L E T O P M A R K E T S
Event Marketing Makes Cooks
Corner a Tourist Destination
BY LORRIE BAUMANN
Cooks Corner Owner Peter Burback is still
reveling in the success of a Wüsthof promotion
that featured a visit by Harald Wüsthof as well as
Wüsthof Executive Chef Mike Garaghty. The
November 9 event wasn’t just the biggest
Wüsthof sale in Cook’s Corner history; it was
Wüsthof-Trident Knife Company’s biggest oneday Harald Wüsthof event ever, Burback says.
Harald Wüsthof is the seventh generation
Managing Partner of the Solingen-Germanybased company with its family-owned and
managed heritage that spans nearly two centuries.
So bringing him to Cooks Corner, the nation’s
largest kitchen store, in Green Bay, Wisc., was
kind of a big deal for Burback as well as the
thousand or so customers who showed up to buy
sale-priced Wüsthof knives, get their new knives
autographed by Wüsthof himself and learn from
Garaghty how to use and take care of their
Wüsthof cutlery.
“What a fun weekend that was,” Burback
recalls. After the all-day sale, Burback and his
guests went out for dinner at the Brett Favre
steakhouse, that doesn’t usually accept
reservations for the night before a Green Bay
Packers game. The restaurant made an exception
for the Cooks Corner party simply because
Wüsthof was one of the guests. “He’s like a rock
star to the chefs,” Burback says. “They met us at
the door. We got treated with a lot more respect
than I’ve ever been treated.” At the request of the
restaurant’s Executive Chef and Manager,
Wüsthof whipped out his Sharpie marker and
signed knives for them as well as the party’s
waiter. Burback wonders if those knives will ever
actually be used again. “A lot of people would
never use them; they just hang them on the wall,”
he says.
The following day, the group went to see the
Green Bay Packers play the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Packers didn’t win, but Burback and his 14year-old son Andrew came home with memories
for a lifetime after Lambeau Field’s executive chef
invited them up to his suite at the field during the
game. Wüsthof presented the executive chef with
knives, and he and Wüsthof talked knife skills.
“Earlier in the year the
General Manager of
the
food
service
company
that
prepares all the food
for Lambeau Field
purchased Wüsthof
knives to reward the
30+ Lambeau chefs
for a great 2012, and
Burback had the
Packer logo engraved
on them. The chefs
had those knives with
them for Wüsthof to autograph, which he did
while watching the game.
But although this particular weekend was
exceptional for the quality of the memories that
came out of it, it’s not entirely different from the
kinds of events that are likely to happen in Cooks
Corner two or three times during the year, in
addition to the smaller promotions like the
holiday carolers who are booked to sing at the
store during the season, the regular giveaways, the
bus tours that visit the store and the occasional
band concert on the sales floor. “I’m trying to
create the Disney World of cooking stores,”
Burback says.
He’s a ceaseless marketer, and the Wüsthof
event was heavily promoted. “I do a lot of t.v.,”
Burback says. Flyers advertising the event were
inserted into the local newspaper and a mailing of
approximately 20,000 brochures went to Cooks
Corner’s regular mailing list. There was an email
campaign. Planning for it all took a couple of
months before the event itself. “This is the kind of
thing I do,” Burback says.
The last big bash like this was when Cooks
Corner moved to its present location just four
months ago, although it’s only one mile down the
from its previous location, vehicle traffic increased
from 7,000 cars per day to about 150,000 cars a
day on the streets around it. On grand opening
day, customers started lining up at 6 a.m. to be the
first inside to see and buy.
Burback was lured into his 25,000 square foot
space by that traffic and the developer’s interest in
the traffic volume that Cooks Corner could bring
into the shopping center. “We draw a couple of
hundred thousand shoppers a year into our store,”
Burback says.
The new store includes space for a cooking
school furnished with $35,000-worth of SubZero and Wolf appliances and a store-within-astore concept offering Green Bay’s only
Wisconsin cheese store; the largest selection of
hot sauces in the state, with more than 400
varieties for sale; a candy shop with homemade
fresh fudge, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and roasted
nuts; a Zyliss display custom-built for the store by
the company; a Joseph Joseph shop that’s actually
one of the company’s retired trade show booths
and the country’s largest
display of kitchen gadgets,
with more than 18,000 SKUs
in stock. “What sets it apart
from every other kitchen store
in the world is our gadget
wall. Over 300 linear feet of
slat wall full of gadgets,”
Burback says. “When you
come to our store, you’re
going to find what you want,
and
the
prices
are
competitive.” A wine shop is
the newest addition. And of
course, “There’s not a bigger or more beautiful
Wüsthof display in the world,” Burback says.
“Vendors have been really helpful.” At the back of
the store, there’s an outlet center, where Cooks
Corner sells discontinued product lines,
remaindered merchandise, refurbished kitchen
equipment and some scratch-and-dent items –
whatever he can get for a significant discount
below regular wholesale prices and sell to
customers who care more about price or the thrill
of a bargain than with having the latest model.
“We use the outlet store as a promotion tool,
because they can sell the equipment below MAP,”
Burback says. Otherwise, the store’s pricing
philosophy is generally one of everyday low prices,
with items offered at the MAP prices. Just a block
away from a Bed, Bath & Beyond store,
competitive pricing is essential to Cooks Corner,
but the well-trained staff also encourages
shoppers to come into the store to get answers to
all of their culinary questions. “Like with Wüsthof
knives, the staff has gone through training to
understand how they’re made and why the knives
are worth the price. They can explain that to the
consumer,” Burback says. “They might see
something at a Pampered Chef party, but they
come to my store to buy it, because they know
they can learn the facts about it.” His staff is
trained to offer customers a less expensive item if
it performs as well as the more expensive item
they’re looking at. “We’ve built that reputation.
People feel that they’re treated fairly in my store,”
Burback says. “My goal is that when people leave,
they feel like they got more than they expected.”
Cooks Corner is located in The Shoppes at the
Village Mall at 2605 S. Oneida Street in Green
Bay, Wisc. www.cookscorner.com.